December 12, 2012

When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death. So death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. (Romans 5:12 NLT).

As you read these words what comes to mind? For me (Lyle), I remember how the serpent tempted Eve, and Adam followed. I remember how sin and shame entered the world and how God in His grace and mercy, even then – after Adam’s rebellion, chose to take the life of an animal, shedding it’s blood, to clothe Adam and Eve, covering their nakedness and shame. I think of how Jesus’ blood, as the perfect Lamb of God, was shed for my sins and I thank my Lord for His gracious gift of forgiveness and salvation, as well as His ongoing work of reconciliation in my life. I think of how I was lost in my sin. How, if not for God’s wonderful grace, I would be eternally separated from Him. I think of how He has so radically changed my life and, if not for His mercy, where my life might be now. I don’t know if most of you are like me, that your thoughts went immediately to what God has done for you personally, but when I do ONLY that I miss how sin has impacted everyone around me.

As I thought about this and why this happens, I thought how easy it is to get used to the effects of the sin that surrounds us every day; the broken homes, the homeless, the orphans, even our environment. Yes, we see it, but it does nothing to stir our hearts. It may stir our emotions for a moment, but not our hearts. If our hearts were stirred, our lives would change. We would pray differently. Where we let the Lord lead us would change. How we respond to what we see would change. When we let the brokenness all around us become “normal” our hearts get hard and this hardness becomes our new normal. This is not God’s heart. He sent His only Son to die the most horrific death – for us. Jesus became sin – for us. Jesus was born to die and He knew it – for us. He compared His life to a kernel of wheat and asked us to do the same. He said true religion is to take care of widows and orphans and to keep ourselves unstained by the world. He told us all the commandments can be summed up into this: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these”. What came to my mind is this, if I become numb to the effects of sin in the world around me, how much easier it will be to become numb to the sin in my life.

God, in his grace and mercy, does not want me, or any of us, to remain in this state. He will stir us. He will allow us to experience pain and heartache or to walk through someone else’s pain and heartache to shake our reality, to show us how twisted our normal is and how we need to see with His eyes and feel with His heart. He will do this over and over to tender our hearts and to conform our lives more and more into His image. Suddenly, what our normal is, is set into stark contrast with and challenged by something even worse then what we have accepted as “normal” in our lives.  We can no longer push what we are seeing and experiencing into our little box of “normal”. It is at those times we have a choice. We can create a new normal, hardening our hearts even more, or we can respond in the character of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Our trip to Moroto was such a time for me.

Let me begin by saying this is not a place I would normally be drawn to, but I am. Imagine in your minds an old west town. The setting is dry and dusty. There is nothing beyond the town except more desert and dryness. The roads are dry and dusty, except when a sudden rain comes, then they are thick with sticky mud. The buildings are old and worn down, but instead of being made of wood they are made of brick and cement. This is Moroto. Except instead of being surrounded by desert, it is surrounded by savanna. It is still hot and dusty and one gets thirsty just walking its streets. The people there are some of the most marginalized in Uganda. The few readily available natural resources are quickly being used up. The gold, oil, and other such natural resources are monopolized by the government and contribute nothing substantial to people in Karamoja. If you have followed the news, you have heard that most of the foreign aid being given to Uganda for the Karamoja area was pulled because of government mismanagement. Most of the bustle of activity taking place is due to the number of NGO’s in the area, not economic development. I saw Land Cruiser and after Land Cruiser with so many names NGO’s emblazoned on their doors that I lost count, yet this area is steeped in poverty. Every time I walked by a nice compound, it was yet another NGO. This is an area, which until just a few years ago, was rife with war. The Karamojong are pastoralists, but are also renowned warriors. As warriors they made armed intrusions into neighboring countries to raid other pastoralists’ cattle, and when that avenue was closed, would raid each other. We met a young orphan boy who was missing fingers on one hand and his mouth was deformed because of bullet wounds received during one such attack. Things have calmed down due to the efforts of the Uganda military, the United Nations, and the U.S. military. Yes, the U.S. military. We met two very nice young men, both “Rangers” who are working in the area. I asked them what U.S. Special forces were doing here and they replied, “We are more about opening doors, then kicking doors in”. Despite some of the negative things the government has been accused of, i.e. diverting funds, they have stopped the fighting. They have collected many thousands of guns and burned them, but what still remains is a lack of reconciliation and distrust. We saw men and boys drunk, most probably on sorghum beer. Women in the villages were asking Ingrid for snuff. A man and a woman were physically fighting. She was on the ground and he was kicking her as the Police and others watched. The Police did break them up, but then the woman attacked  the man, and was thrown to ground once again by him.  Such was the world we entered. My normal was shaken!

We saw other things though. We saw one of those drunken 12 or 13 year old boys, to whom Ingrid had given some rice, only eat some of it and then give the rest of it to a young child, who was also hungry. We saw a lady, who had no resources, begin a ministry for deaf children. She worked to get space for them in the public school, she learned Uganda sign language, and now there are two teachers for the deaf students, although much work remains. The deaf students range in age from 6 to 17 and have to repeat their grades over and over again. You see, even though space was made for them in the government school, two teachers cannot begin to teach them everything. They are also required to attend the regular classes, but sign language interpreters are not allowed in the class because they are considered disruptive to the rest of the class. So their progress is stunted and slow and often times they grow discouraged, as do their families, and they return to the bush as goat or cattle herders. We also saw joy written all over the faces of so many people. We met a pastor who started an orphanage, the place where we met the child who had been wounded by gunfire. There we saw young boys with wide bright smiles. In other places we saw people who were passionate for the work of Jesus Christ. We saw people who have experienced God’s grace and transformation in their lives and those who desperately need to experience the same. We saw all that the Lord had put on both Ingrid’s and my heart before we ever came to Africa, here in Moroto. We saw hope in the suffering. We saw potential. We saw so much. We see Karamoja in our future, but are waiting on the Lord as to when and how that will occur.

We would very much appreciate your continued prayers as we seek the Lord for the future He has for us. As we move from guest house managers to students at the New Hope Institute of Child and Family care with New Hope Uganda, we know the Lord will be continuing to prepare us for what He is calling us to.

Love Lyle and Ingrid

Here are a few photos of our time in Moroto.

Grassy savanna

A bluff close to Moroto.

Lyle and Ingrid with savanna and mountains in background.

One of the thorn bushes. You can see how this was called Land of Thorns in the video we talked about on another post. These thorns are about 3 inches long.

This goat is standing on a narrow fence to get to the good leaves. One tenacious goat!

Karamojong women sorting through sticks to build a fence.

The fence they were building.

Some of the children we met.














This last photo has nothing to do with Karamoja. The Lord blessed us with a flock, although it looked more like a herd, of Crested Cranes in a field near the guest house. We thought we would share a pair with you!